The Blotter Report: Bad Apples Get the Boot

Two advisors who couldn’t stay out of bankruptcy will no longer be able to use the CFP designation, according to a public disciplinary report issued Tuesday by the CFP Board.

Wylie, Texas-based Robert Carpenter and Earlham, Iowa-based Stephen William Connolly both filed for second bankruptcies, which the Board says “demonstrated a continued inability to manage…personal finances.” Apparently you’re allowed one bankruptcy, but two is one too many.

Five others also were stripped of their designations, including a Florida advisor who misappropriated clients’ funds and a New York-based advisor with M&T Securities who recommended unsuitable investments to retirees.

The regulator filed a complaint Monday alleging that while with Morgan Keegan from November 2006 to September 2008, Tintle recommended a client invest $1 million in an outside venture that was speculative, illiquid and risky. Further, Tintle failed to report his activities to the firm and the sale was never approved.

FINRA also claims Tintle persuaded clients to withdraw funds for securities purchases, but the broker never applied the client’s money toward the promised purchase. The broker’s alleged theft continued even after he left Morgan Keegan to join Oppenheimer in September 2008.

In its complaint, FINRA is seeking sanctions against Tintle, as well as the disgorgement of any illicit profits.

This Little Piggy Goes to Jail

In case you missed it, Brian Anthony Bjork was sentenced to serve a 52-month prison sentence last Friday and ordered to pay $1.1 million in restitution to victims of the “scam within a scam” he helped perpetrate with his partner who eventually committed suicide while under investigation.

As reported in REP. Magazine in March, Bjork is the former employee of deceased Friendswoodinvestmentadvisor Joel David Salinas—who committed suicide in 2011 after his $50 million bogus bond scam was uncovered.

Prosecutors claimed the Missouri City, Texas-based investment advisor ran a concurrent Ponzi scheme within Salinas’ larger fraud that swindled investors out of more than $1 million.

While working with Salinas, a Feb. 7 complaint alleged Bjork used client investments for pawnshops and corporate bonds to illegally finance his lifestyle and pay off prior investors. Bjork pled guilty to one count of wire fraud in February.